thesmartestfish: October 2008

10/30/08

polaroid wall

I love this wall of polaroids...I wish the film wasn't discontinued. :(

photo from alexandra.matzke.

long danish dining table

I love this entire room but especially the table. photo from The 10 cent designer.

10/29/08

the house is really tidy, so I took the opportunity to take more pictures. I'm trying to get better at photographing interiors too. here is the kitchen/dining area:

I have barely started to decorate our bedroom, but so far I'm really happy with the pink vintage lamps. the sheets tie in really well with the bathroom which has tiles textured like bamboo in a similar color.

I want to cover the wall above the dresser with photos and artwork. I think this room will be really nice when it's done!

georgia russell cut books

incredible book art by georgia russell.

10/28/08

kitchen update

I realized that I haven't uploaded any photos of the kitchen after we moved in, so I took a few this morning. we still don't have the minipendants for over the island. I can't wait until those are in...they were one of the few splurges in the kitchen. they are going to look amazing, I think.

we decorated the fridge with photos this weekend. rich got quoted in the nyt, so we put the article on the fridge too! how cool is that?

update: I also want to mention that the kitchen backsplash is hakatai glass tile. hakatai has been super helpful to me, and I'm thrilled with how this tile turned out.

10/27/08

my living room

I finally figured out what to do with that awkward corner with the TV. we had some cheap ikea shelving and cut it down to the right height. the I painted it white so it wouldn't stand out too much. I like it sooo much better because the TV lines up with the top of the mantle, and the shelves don't stick out as much as the little dresser that was there before. also, we now have a place for the rest of my books and our dvds. now I need to make some art to go over the mantle...something big.

more pictures of the house here.

sequin boots

my last post reminded me of these boots I saw on shopbop. they won't work well with my wardrobe, but they are seriously cool!

metallic pillows from toast

toast has such beautiful things! I l'd love to have a couple of these for our house.

10/22/08

make your own paper lamp

instructions on how to fold paper to make your own lamp on ah-yi. very cool!

new paintings

I just finished another one of these swirly paintings. It took me a long time because I took a break in the middle of working on it to go to jtree. I think these two paintings will look very nice framed in natural wood frames hanging on our bedroom wall.

kia neill graphite drawings

I just saw these wonderful drawings by kia neill in this new online shop ashes & milk.

10/20/08

serena's new place

I posted about serena mitnik-miller's surf shack in santa cruz here. apartment therapy just featured her new place in san franciso, which is also wonderful. both are definitely some of my favorite home tours that apartment therapy has ever done.

domino apartment makeover

I saw this apartment in domino magazine this month. I love the fun mix of furniture and the bright red/muted green color combination.

10/19/08

solo

after spending a week in jtree, we decided to head over to san diego to relax a bit before going home. we went to my absolute favorite design store, solo, in solana beach. it's always too hard to choose just one thing to buy for my house, but I usually end up leaving with some of their amazing design books. the displays are always extremely inspiring, and I end up taking tons of pictures.

the silver hearts are milagros. I would love to have a collection of them hanging on the wall. I also have some old wooden hands and wings which I should find a place to display.

this is a collection of antique french butter dish inserts apparently. they look amazing in a group like that.

encaustic paintings. these remind me of how much fun it was to paint encaustic. you can layer on the wax to create a lot of depth and use xerox copies to do image transfers. maybe I'll invest in the supplies sometime soon.

10/10/08

gone climbing

I will be gone next week climbing in joshua tree. yay!

new lamp shades

I realized I never posted about the lamp shades I got for those awesome vintage pink lamps I found on craigslist. It took me a really long time to find shades that worked! I got these rattan shades from williams sonoma home, and I think they are perfect. I love how the light shines through them, and they cast a really warm and inviting light. the pink lamps look really great in the bedroom, but I'll wait to post more pictures when I finish decorating that room.

pbteen lighting

I love these lights from pbteen. the little clamp light is extremely cool and on sale. it comes in white too...very tempting.

10/9/08

I'm painting again!

I hadn't really finished any artwork for over 3 years before this, but I am finally getting back into it! yay! here's a couple little studies I did this week:

I used to love making swirly drawings like the one above. I think I'm going to make some larger paintings like this.

this one was inspired by sarajo frieden (who makes beautiful paintings). I was having completely artist's block, so I decided to just copy something quickly to get the creative juices flowing. the colors inspired me to do the swirly one, so that was good.